Writing a blog post has become something of an Herculean effort. This line, for instance. I thought some and then some more about what I should write and voila, a line came into being that encapsulated my existence today.

I am still on the book I started the year with. Or more accurately, I stopped reading it when I was about four-fifths through with it, and picked up another travelogue, almost as if to pick up from where I dropped off on the first one. This new one, and I am about half-way through with it is called Chasing the Monsoon - chronicles the author, Alexander Frater's tryst with the 1987 monsoon. It is all very poetic - born in New Hebrides(!), he emigrated, or should I say returned, to his native UK when he was a little over 5 years old, and somewhere in the recesses of his memory, he vividly retains impressions of the passionate romance and fury of rainfall in the tropics. Many years later, in 1987, on a sudden whim, when the memories all become too much for him, he decides to follow the monsoon in India - from its onset in Kerala to wherever it ends - Cherrapunji, in all likelihood, unless he is leading me, the reader, significantly astray.

Where the bookmark stands presently, he has just reached Mumbai, or Bombay as it was called then. Very delightful his journey has been thus far, and I am looking forward to reading with much pleasure the rest of his tale.

The other book I started out on was an old classic called the The Big Sleep, a detective novel by Raymond Chandler starring the hard-nosed Philip Marlowe. Very pulpish, almost as if it was a movie retold as a novel, though it really is the other way around. The movie version, as google tells me right now, is #139 on IMDB and stars Humphrey Bogart, which means I should find a way to watch it at some point. In any case, I have come to a grinding halt on Page 75 or thereabouts. Given that I own the book, it has been put on the backburner while I try to finish Alex Frater's joyous little travelogue.

Reading apart, the time available for any other recreational activity has been at a premium. My tennis mornings are in doldrums - have averaged a week a month for two months now. And it looks like February will go the same way. Not helpful at all as I chase my own dream of emulating Federer. Which reminds me, did you watch that match against Murray? What a classic - I haven't seen Federer play that well since 2007. He chased down everything, created the most beautiful angles with his apparently suspect backhand, and pulled the trigger on his forehand (and the backhand, for that matter) every single time the opportunity presented itself. And yes, that serve - it worked ever so well too. I was stunned at how well he served at the fag end of the 5th set in that classic against Roddick in the Wimbledon final. He was almost as good in this one - though you wouldn't know that if you just went by the ace count.

So, despite all my travails with workaholism over the past month or so - watching a sporting moment like that did make for a truly exhilirating experience. Hopefully, one day, before he turns mortal and is no longer the same Federer, I shall have the chance to see him live.

On that note, good night everyone. Have an excellent weekend.

So, what books did I read this year? Here's what I can recall. A couple of these could be books I actually read in 2008, but I am not really sure.

Update: - So, I remembered I hadn't mentioned Anil's Ghost here. A Michael Ondatjee book - beautifully written, even though it was yet another book I had to read 15 pages at a time. Come to think of it, 2009 was a slow reading year.
Fiction

• Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy - that's 3 books


• Morris West's The Ambassador and The Tower of Babel


• Mohammed Haneef's A Case of Exploding Mangoes


• Vikram Seth's Two Lives


• Neil Gaiman's Stardust


• The 4th book in George Martin's Song of Ice & Fire series


• Ernst Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls


• A couple of Agatha Christie books I don't remember the names of...

• Leadership Jazz


• The Nudge - still reading...


• The Seven Day Weekend


• Direct From Dell


• The Ascent of Money


• iWoz

• John Grisham's The Associate


• Arun Krishnan's The Loudest Firecracker


• Umberto Eco's Baudolino


• Robert Pirsig's Lila


• Chris Anderson's The Long Tail


• Beyond Buzz

I haven't said much on these pages this year. Noticed I haven't said anything at all for more than 3 months now. Well, there hasn't been much to write about really. A regular year every which way I look at it. Work was fine, settled into my new role, and while there were a few misses, by and large did a fairly good job, I would like to think. Not a year of any great highs at work, but no major lows either.

Home has been continuous activity and chatter. N is now 20 months, and she is more than a handful. I can't begin to imagine how people manage two kids! I don't spend as much time with her as A does, but as she's grown older, she doesn't let me off that easily. The last 3 months, every day I return from the office, I have had to indulge her for at least 10 minutes - play ball, run around, whatever...before she lets me have my dinner. Lots of beautiful moments amidst all the trials and tribulations of bringing up a kid...That incredible smile will break someone's heart one day, I can already imagine that. Maybe she is going to be an athlete - the way she runs up and down the living room after she's had her evening meal is something I haven't been able to capture on camera, but those aren't images that will fade anyway. When she turned 17 months or so, suddenly she developed the sense of fear. Strangers, masks - I don't know what neuron flipped at that age that she suddenly cannot trust everyone or everything. She hides behind my back or holds me so tight it's a feeling I cannot describe. But if you are a parent, you will know. She learns too. The magic of switches turning on and off electrical appliances; objects she can identify though she obstinately refuses to utter their names; peeing in the bathroom - well, not always, but still; colors - I will wear this dress, and nothing but this one; a sense of taste - ice cream-yucks, vermicelli - yum; bargaining - do something for me, and I will call you appa. There are more, but this is a good enough synopsis for now.

Travel - very liitle, though I did manage quite a few treks with the office gang this year. Pondicherry last week, and in late September - Delhi and Bharatpur. That's been pretty much it, I think. I think I now want to travel without a camera, or at least take far fewer pictures. I don't seem to see the places as much if I am taking photographs. Contemplation, a sense of peace - one needs to be in the moment to experience that. Photography, at least for me, appears to take me out of that moment though it does provide joy in other ways. We shall see.

Children change everything. So, while it's been a regular year, it's been a much changed year too. I probably didn't feel that as much last year, but this year, oh boy, for sure, I have.

I have been meaning to document the books I read and the movies I viewed this year. Maybe I will do that in the next day or two if I am in the mood. Maybe I won't. We shall see.

Have a good 2010, everyone.

I clicked share, didn't I?
Where then did my status go?
Maybe I should copy and click again,
for while that was yesterday 
and I feel differently now,
what if someone was waiting
to hear what I felt then -
will the absence of my lost emotions
in his swirling update stream
drive him to despair? Will I hear
his screams of agony in lurid bold text
on my great wall of memories?
f*&@#* you, where did my status go?
 
Fie on you, you otiose button
smugly camping by that text box
you goad me to distribute my joy,
sorrow and blah - and I click
and click and click and click:
f*&@#* you, where did my status go?
 

Fifteen word updates,
thrice a day, tell my story:
Next is what, next is...

Current Mood: blah

Yesterday, after what seems like ages, A & I walked around the Jayanagar 4th block  Shopping Complex area. Did nothing in particular - ate boiled groundnuts, popcorns and would have had cotton candy if the power hadn't gone off. Bought a couple of VCDs, and then a good dinner at Krishi. Original plan was to take a short hour and half break, but we ended up being there for almost 2.5-3 hrs. Was good.

A walk in a market on a day with perfect weather just feels so much more better than time out in a mall. 

Lights out in the market; 
the young couple take in the night
sequestered from the crowd.

Current Mood: mellow

On a day of death
of people I haven't set
eyes upon, but seem to know
intimately, my mind floats
free - like this day marks
a new beginning though
the week is at an end; some
days are like that, why so
is difficult for me to say-
maybe it is that I slept
just right, maybe the tennis
was good and my forehand felt fine,
maybe it was my daughter's
joy suffused through my shirt
into my soul, maybe
it is all that and more -
never mind, it is not my place
to examine matters such;
when a buoyancy such like
clasps me, I hold on for
dear life no matter what
the rest of the world feels.

Current Mood: chipper

There are days that don't move
as they should. Some people churn
around and around, plotting
changes to make, things
to organize, tactics
to employ - I am not
one of them. The idle beaver-that
would be me. Some days run
along just fine. Some days just
don't. And that's the way they were,
and the way they always will be.
This is a lie -  I will come
around to plotting - tomorrow
if not today - hustle and bustle,
fart and empty my vessels suchlike
that my silence groans, and whispers
abound on my intentions. And then
I shall have arrived - the quientessential
organization man who moved
the days (not the cheese).
 

There is a glass window
where I sit; it looks
out into the city
with all her trees,
buildings, men and women
idling or going about
under a sunny blue sky.
One day in ten, I see
what it sees.
 

Current Mood: cheerful

Federer to collect #14
Federer to beat Nadal and Murray in back-to-back matches
Federer to win Wimbledon #6

Two out of three will be nice.

The past 2 months have been fairly good reading months. I read Two Lives and For Whom the Bell Tolls, am half-way through Direct From Dell and am about 40 pages into Somerset Maugham's Don Fernando. In addition, I also managed to do both bits and pieces of other reading, which makes me a happy cookie.

This, of course, meant that I had to make my visit to Church street again. Yesterday's haul included two Morris West books (haven't read Morris West in the longest time, and seems like a good time to revisit some of his writing), the first two books from Philip Pullman's Northern Lights trilogy, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Steve Wozniak's iWoz and Malcolm Bradbury's Rates of Exchange. In addition, Aparna bought Bill Bryson's A short history of nearly everything, and Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies. A good haul, and sets me back even further in catching up with my own books!

My book shelf is an almighty mess now, and am running out of space as well - one of these days, I need to organize it again, and I suppose, get another book shelf. In fact, am thinking about a whole bunch of things I need to "dispose/refresh" at home - move to LCD/plasma TV from my regular flat screen one, a new music system, replace dad's car, paint the house anew with a bit of the Royale thing thrown in, get some new furniture - seems like the right time to do my bit for India's consumption story though doing all of the above will blow a huge hole in the pocket. Let's see.

A & kiddo are off to Delhi for about 3 weeks, shortly - wondering what to do with the next 2 weekends. I desperately need to get out of Blr myself - hopefully, I can get an overnight trek thing to happen with the office gang.

Current Mood: awake

People slip away
like a fog in the morning,
the floor falls into
a noiseless trance;
awed, I imagine
a time - long gone, when
corporate real estate czars
did not stifle me -
my space, senses and vision
with a constant cacophony
of living and non-living clutter.

Sixty five square feet -
give or take a few,
is the luxury I am given
and nice as it is
to see my neighbour and hers,
hear her conversation or his,
(vice-versa, one hopes),
silence comes, but rarely;
contemplation, rarer still,
my work turns into bustle,
bustle turns into meetings,
meetings turn into work,
and work turns into hustle

I bustle and I hustle,
and managing the two
becomes my work (sometimes over lunch)
and I didn't even notice
something died between the two,
till the day the DNS died too.

Today, I read what must be the most sparkling 4 pages of fictional dialogue I have ever read. It had me waiting, it had me laughing. Out loud. It had me. I was there, if you know what I mean. Roberto didn't pull the trigger, but I almost did. 

Same book. And, I am only half way through. 

I have been making slow progress with Hemingway's "For whom the bell tolls" - it's a splendid read, but I can't seem to find the time to spare more than half-hour any given day. I love books that have a lot of dialogue - well written dialogue, that is. My considered opinion is nobody wrote/writes dialogue better than Hemingway. Local, real, effortless, character-defining and often times profound without one even realizing it. It is the conversations in the book that pull you into the story.

Golz was gay and he had wanted him to be gay too before he left, but he hadn't been.

All the best ones, when you thought it over, were gay. It was much better to be gay and it was a sign of something too. It was like having immortality while you were still alive. That was a complicated one. There were not many of them left though. No, there were not many of the gay ones left. There were very damned few of them left. And if you keep on thinking like that, my boy, you won't be left either. Turn off the thinking now, old timer, old comrade. You are a bridge blower now. Not a thinker.

Funny how the meaning of the word "gay" has changed so much since Hemmingway wrote these lines way way back. Actually, the meaning's not changed, but to use a marketing term, the "top-of-mind" association that comes to mind is contextually completely different.

I age, little knowing
my best years are still ahead
though my bones be slow.

I age little, knowing
my best years are still ahead
though my bones be slow.

Current Mood: creative

I seem to have grown weary of emails - writing in general.  Can't seem to summon the desire or the will to reply to long pending mails, send new year wishes, acknowledge/comment on interesting posts, whatever else. A passing phase, I hope. 


The holidays were good, though the year didn't begin all that well. Dec 20 - 27, I lazed at home, played tennis, watched Ghajini, read books, saw TV, blah blah. 28th - 1st, I was off to Coastal Karnataka on a vacation with family - parents, in-laws, wife and kid. Hit the beaches of Gokarna, Karwar, Kumta, Udupi, Murdeshwar, St. Mary's island, and appeased the Gods as well - Mookambika, Udupi Krishna, and various other temples along the way. Woke up at 5:30  on 1st Jan with an uneasy stomach and ended up spending the rest of the day and the next, dealing with a bad case of food poisoning. The virus spread from me to N, and we had to admit her on 3rd after she threw up just about anything we fed her. Still recovering - it's a sad sight to see an energetic little devil looking downright weary ten minutes after she starts playing. Hopefully, she will be in fine fettle in a day or two. 


The trip ended up being far more hectic than I had planned for. I enjoyed it anyway, as did the grandparents, but A didn't have much fun, what with having to feed the baby every 3 hours or so. I thought with the grandparents around, it woudn't be that difficult, but it still was. She didn't help herself much, carrying exam papers to correct during the trip. Some people are way too dedicated. Stupidly so, at times :-) Next time, I have to make sure she doesn't carry work along.  


Back to the grind now. It's always tough getting back to work after a long vacation. My vacations are far and few between, and that makes it doubly difficult getting the work groove back on. 

...Awesome trek to Ramanagaram happened this Saturday. Plan was to trek one of the hills in the area, and I had shortlisted Sri Revana Siddeshwara (SRS) Betta after checking out some of the articles on the net. This was about 15 kms from Ramanagaram on the Road to Kanakapura. We reached there only to realize that it was just a small rocky hill with a temple at the top & steps(!) all the way up! That, of course, ruled that hill out. Thankfully, we noticed just a little ahead, on the opposite side, another hill that looked just right. We drove further along towards the hill, but couldn't quite figure out where to begin the trek from. Stopped a passing motorcyclist, and after checking with him, we parked our cars at the bus-stop near the foot of the hill, and began the ascent.

As with our previous trek, we had picked the hill on a whim and had no clue as to the right way up. Last time, we figured out the right way somehow. This time, we weren't so lucky. About one-fifth the way up, we realized we had hit a dead-end; this huge boulder & dense foliage through which there was no way through. While the others tried to find an alternate route, in an unusual sense of adventure, I ventured further up through an opening the rest had not seen. Was able to forge my way up and thought I had found a good route. Called out to the rest of the junta to join me, which they duly did. Biggest mistake of the trek. That turned out to be just the wrong route to take. Very soon we were scraping our way past thorny bushes trying to find openings where there werent' any. Everytime we reached a clearing, we would heave a sigh of relief, only to realize a few minutes later that one clearing maketh not a trekking route. On we went anyway, and finally ended up at this rock face (pic below), the only way past which seemed to be a vertical climb up it. I took one tentative step up before I decided that discretion was the better of valour and decided not to attempt any such manoeuvre. Of the seven of us, only KR was brave enough to try it & successfully scaled the rock face. The rest of us decided to stay put & figure out alternate routes. 



KR subsequently went on his own way, and the six of us looked for alternate routes, and after much moving back & forth, finally figured out a way to reach the top. What had seemed like a relatively simple hill to climb turned out to be a real adventure, with the result that we took over 2 hours to reach the top. Took in the view, clicked a few snaps, talked stuff for a while - about 40 minutes or so. And then began the descent. Must have been close to 12 when we started on our way down. We didn't want to take the same route down, but were hopeful of finding an easier way. As it turned out, there was one - the regular trekking route on the other side of the hill, but taking that would have meant we da 5 km road walk to reach our cars! That ruled out the easy option and we were wondering what course to take, when a village kid hanging around near the top volunteered to show us an alternate route down. He did help us descend quickly, but it was an even more painstaking descent than the ascent. He led us through thorny bushes that were just right for him to squeeze through. We had to literally be on all fours at places, bend as far down as we possibly could, and despite all that, couldn't quite avoid a nick or two.



In any case, we were back at the base just before 1:30. Drove down to Kamat for a delightful North Karnataka meal before heading back home.

In hindsight, we were quite lucky we didn't step on a snake or two given the general haphazardness of the trek. But it really was a fun trek, and the view from the top made it all worthwhile. Easily one of the top 2-3 Bangalore treks.

The office trekking group has expanded a fair bit since the early days 2 years ago, with the result that the treks are a much more frequent occurrence. We even have a mailing list now. Of the founding four, if I can call it that :-), one has left HP, but the other three of us are still going strong. The flipside of more frequent treks is that I have to necessarily miss a few - else the wife would ask me to settle down in Ramanagaram itself. Nevertheless, I have been on 4 treks in the last 5 odd months, which is a darn good rate. Next up is Kumarparvat, easily the toughest yet - likely to be in the Jan 26th weekend. I think I will have to skip that, but let's see. The next post, I will list the treks we have done so far.

...Not really. But that is the sort of juxtaposition that happens when you read Eats, Shoots & Leaves and follow it up with The Waterworks. You end up reading a ripping good yarn through a grammarian's lens.

Lynne Truss's book had been lying on my shelf for the longest time, and finally, a month ago, I got around to reading it; with some trepidation, I must admit. I know my its from my it's, but I don't really fancy myself as a grammar person. With good reason, as I was to find out when I ventured into Lynne's world, a world where full stops, commas, semicolons, colons, hyphens, apostrophes and the like seemed to radiate joy, anger and distress; mostly, the latter; with regards to their use and abuse. Most entertaining, I must confess. Possibly, the best book I have read this year - did you know there are some 7 appropriate uses for the comma? Or was that for the semicolon?

As you may have noticed, I have suddenly developed a fondness for semicolons, which is not two words, by the way.

In the meantime, I had paid a visit to Blossoms & Bookworms - my quarterly homage to second hand bookstores, and picked up a dozen books. E.L. Doctorow's "The Waterworks", among them. Not an author I have read before, but someone I have heard a fair bit of in the past - one of those literary sorts' is what I had thought. I am about 2/5ths done with the book, and I must say, literary, I certainly find him. Alongside that, though, eminently readable. Unlike, say, a Salman Rushdie - someone, I have, to this day, never been able to appreciate much (btw, the wife picked up Midnight's Children - one in the dozen, and chances are, the least likely to be read end-to-end). I had also picked up a collection of short stories by Doctorow and I am much looking forward to that once I am done with this book. I think I will pick up a few more of his works as well, in due course. However, one thing I have noticed about Doctorow is that he uses a surfeit of ellipsis's (...), which, if not for Madame Lynne, I would have paid scant attention to. And, if I have understood Lynne correctly, his usage isn't always appropriate either. Tut, Tut, Mr. Doctorow.

In other news, the recession has hit - pretty direct impact, as well. But more on that, some other time. Matters of commerce are out of place in a post about books, no?

Lynne, by the way, rails a fair bit about the predisposition of my generation - or maybe, it's the one after - to use ellipsis and dashes (not hyphens). Guilty, your honour.

Current Mood: productive